Marketing TextYou are looking for a modern tool for learning and want to become a welding specialist? Then choose e-learning! The distance learning tool enables you to be very flexible with your learning time and place!

SummaryThe project was looking to implement and improve distance learning for welding education in Hungary and Croatia.
By implementing and translating an interactive and stimulating tool, the project has a lasting impact in Vocational Education and Training in both target countries.
The tool is assisting in ensuring the high degree of technical quality that the EWF harmonised system of training and qualification for welding requires.

DescriptionWith Welding being the most important fabrication technique used in manufacturing, where a failure in a weld can lead to disastrous consequences, the effort to assure that welding is performed with proper quality is clear from the amount of Standards that exist in the field which include standards for certification of welding professionals (EN 287 for welders and ISO 14731 for Welding Coordinators). A recent study about the economic importance of welding technology in Europe ("The Economic Importance of Welding and Joining in Europe", 2009) has concluded that the industry using welding represents an annual Added value of € 86 billion. This area has seen the number of youngsters embracing the profession decrease in the last decade while retraining of professionals has followed the same trend. This tendency is thought to be due to the association of “Dirty, dangerous, dusty” with welding technology. The international community is nowadays developing a strong marketing campaign to change this view (AWS video “Welding is so hot it is cool”; EWF slogan “Welding cool, clean and clever”) which is already having some effect and is expected to contribute to a significant increase on the interest of youngsters for professions in welding. In order to answer to the industrial need of skilled welders in the short run new developments have to be made in the VET system for welding related personnel.
This project was aimed at maintaining this positive trend, by developing new ways to spread distance learning techniques to other countries, making welding education much more accessible and stimulating for prospective students.
Focusing on a very successful tool, an interactive CD, developed by the German partner, the work was oriented to translating and implementing this particular material for use in other countries, namely Croatia and Hungary. The project was also focused on new techniques and tools best suited to the target countries needs in order to increase the number of qualified welders from these countries, by decreasing the predominance of in-room training classes.
The development of new distance learning techniques was greatly improved by the German partner's experience in this field and which was also contributed to adjust distance learning to the EWF training and qualification system.
By trying to overcome the more traditional approaches to welding education, this project was greatly improved the overall welding education environment in the partnership countries, since it was a more appealing activity to a wider audience, ensuring a continued increase in the number of welding students in those countries and improving the conditions for distance welding training. The CD developed at the end of the Project was an essential tool for the improvement of these countries' rate of qualified welding personnel, through the use of more effective and user-friendly training methodologies and practices.

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